“There's no sugar-coating it - we expect more from our experienced players and it's a case of make one error and the ball ends up in the back of the net.

“It's the same-old, same-old - I wish it was the same people making these errors so you could make the changes that are necessary, but in this case it was Graham Doak and Gareth Timoney - they are two experienced players who don't often make mistakes, but on Saturday they did - and it's in the back of the net.

“Even for the other goal, you could say it was a mistake. Kevin Montgomery came out for it, he slipped and fell to his knees, and it was easy enough for their player to knock it home.

“All three goals were our own downfall - poor passing from certain individuals, some individuals had bad distribution, there were poor performances - it was really disappointing.

“We work so hard in training; all the effort is there, and we talk about it after the game, but the guys have got to remember that hard work is a standard requirement of the game, you are expecting that level every game!”

Alan believes that if luck had been with his side, things could have been very different.

He explained: “They've not conceded many goals, and not many teams have scored two against Perthshire when they've been playing at home.

“When we got it back to 1-1, Aiden Malone had a very good chance to put us in front, but it wasn't to be.

“If we had got the second goal we might have gone on to win it, but we're losing goals and making silly mistakes.

“We'd been dealt a couple of bad cards before the game, though, as Billy Stevenson hadn't trained all week because he had stitches in his knee so was on the bench, Jamie McLeod was suspended, Mark Bishop was working away down south, and Andy McFarlane is out for the season. Those are guys who would all have started, but we were able to give Ally Morgan his first start on the left wing and he did okay.

“The most frustrating part of it is, it doesn't matter whether you're Alan Wardlaw or Jose Mourinho, we can't do anything about players making mistakes or individual errors.”

Alan now turns his attentions to this weekend's Emirates Scottish Cup fourth round clash at home to Shotts Bon Accord, which will kick off at 1.45pm at Somervell Park.

Shotts saw off Annbank United at the weekend in a 3-0 victory, and the Lang’s former number two Tam Miller scouted the opposition.

Alan added: “Tam went to watch them, so I'll be speaking to him this week to get his report.

“I know they were over watching us last week at Beith, and I regularly speak to their manager Tony McInally. I spoke with him afterwards, and he said some nice things about us - maybe that was some reverse psychology?

“We'll go into this game with a few changes - we've lost six goals in the last two games and that's just not good enough. Mark Bishop will definitely be back in the starting line-up.”

Alan and his assistant manager analysed the game on Sunday, and have spotted a pattern emerging after their recent results.

“Myself and Billy Campbell had a good hour talking about it on Sunday, but it seems that everything we do is cyclical - we will have a good performance, follow it up with a poor performance, then after the next game it will be crisis talk time.

“We've come back after the Christmas break with three games that I wouldn't have chosen for us to have - away to Beith in the West of Scotland Cup last week, away to the league leaders Perthshire on Saturday there, and now this coming Saturday it's Shotts in the Scottish Cup.

“I'd have preferred for us to come back and hit the ground running and get a few league games under our belt, but that's the card we've been dealt so we'll just have to get on with it.”

Meanwhile, the Lang have added a new member to their coaching staff, bringing in former Clydebank player Newton Keenan.

Alan said: “He's newly-qualified, and now he's got his coaching certificates, he's looking forward to getting started with us, and we're delighted to have him onboard.”